medical history

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  4/30/2021
  

  Psychiatry Confronts Its Racist Past, and Tries to Make Amends

  "Critics operating both inside and outside the A.P.A. say that it still must overcome high hurdles to truly address its issues around racial equity — including its diagnostic biases, the enduring lack of Black psychiatrists and a payment structure that tends to exclude people who can’t afford to pay out of pocket for services."

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• SOURCE: Nursing Clio
  4/29/2021
  

  Mary Seacole and the Politics of Writing Black History in 1980s Britain

  by Margo Williams

  The revival of British interest in the life of Jamaican-Scottish nurse Mary Seacole reflected the rise of a movement by Black British activists to see Black history as a story of struggle, rather than of a color-blind narrative of Britishness. 

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• SOURCE: Bloomberg CityLab
  4/27/2021
  

  Pandemic Lessons From the Era of ‘Les Miserables’

  Medical historian Ed Cohen describes the 1832 cholera outbreak as "imperial blowback," as the disease arrived in Europe from their colonies. Nearly 2% of the city's population died, but the aftermath saw an increase in migration from the countryside and a flourishing of public health-oriented planning. 

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• SOURCE: Bloomberg CityLab
  4/14/2021
  

  How Amsterdam Recovered From a Deadly Outbreak — in 1665

  Attracting migrants was the key to Amsterdam's economic and social recovery, according to a study of historical data by two Dutch economists. 

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• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  4/22/2021
  

  The Great Forgetting: Why We Forget Epidemics and Why This One Must Be Remembered

  by Nina Burleigh

  "For most Americans, the history of the 1918 flu shares space in that ever-larger tomb of oblivion with the history of other diseases of our great-grandparents’ time that vaccines have now eradicated."

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• SOURCE: Perspectives on History
  4/16/2021
  

  Vaccine Hesitancy is a 21st-Century Phenomenon

  by Gareth Millward

  The progress of public health practice means that today's policymakers seek to make vaccination widespread enough to eradicate, rather than suppress, disease. Looking at success as a continuum could lead to more constructive approaches to work toward eradication. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  4/21/2021
  

  Revisiting a 19th Century Medical Idea Could Help Address COVID-19

  by Melanie A. Kiechle

  Although the miasma theory of disease has been replaced by the germ theory, it's nevertheless the case that it drew attention to the connection between air quality and health, and the practical measures inspired by it can be useful in the COVID pandemic. 

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• SOURCE: NIH Director's Blog
  4/15/2021
  

  Fauci Donates Model to Smithsonian’s COVID-19 Collection

  Dr. Anthony Fauci's model of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been a prop in numerous informational sessions since the beginning of the pandemic. Now, the plastic germ will reside in the Smithsonian's collections. 

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• SOURCE: WEMU
  4/12/2021
  

  U-M Medical Historian Says It Appears History Is Repeating Itself In Our Current Pandemic

  Medical Historian Alex Navarro warns that resistance to vaccines and public health measures are likely to prolong the COVID pandemic the way they did the 1919 influenza. 

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• SOURCE: History.com
  4/9/2021
  

  The First ‘Vaccine Passports’ Were Scars from Smallpox Vaccinations

  Faced with unreliable and falsifiable documentation, public health authorities at the turn of the 20th century demanded physical proof of vaccination: the scarring left by the early technique, says smallpox historian Michael Willrich.

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• SOURCE: BBC
  4/12/2021
  

  How US History Explains Vaccine Passport Skepticism

  Opposition to requiring documentary proof of vaccination to participate in some activities is rooted both in the weak traditions of public health in the United States and legitimate fears that such "passports" will work to disadvantage the poor, minorities, and others who are less able to access vaccination. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  4/10/2021
  

  A Once-in-a-Century Crisis Can Help Educate Doctors

  by Molly Worthen

  The COVID-19 pandemic has offered valuable lessons on the necessity of humanistic education in the training of medical professionals. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  3/25/2021
  

  Listen: A History of Pandemic Xenophobia and Racism

  Historical examples abound of public health crises exacerbating racial tensions and exclusions. Medical historian Alexandre White discusses his work on a plague pandemic in early 20th century South Africa 

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• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  3/25/2021
  

  Did the Black Death Rampage Across the World a Century Earlier Than Previously Thought?

  The application of DNA testing technology to the bodies of people from the medieval era suggests that the Black Death was present much earlier than believed. 

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• SOURCE: Scientific American
  3/20/2021
  

  We Need Social Science, Not Just Medical Science, to Beat the Pandemic

  by Nicholas Dirks

  "In order to ensure that scientific advances work not just to create new medicines but to help lead to a healthier and more just world, we need to ensure that science and social science work hand in hand as well."

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• SOURCE: Stat
  3/16/2021
  

  Nazi Anatomical Drawings are Donated in Effort to Address Ethical Quandary — and Spotlight a Dark History

  The Pernkopf Atlas of anatomy was an unmatched documenting of the nervous and circulatory system. But it was created by Nazi doctors and partly based on the examination of the bodies of people executed by Nazis. A long effort to resolve the ethical dilemma inherent in its use has resulted in the donation of the illustrations to the Medical University of Vienna. 

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• SOURCE: Black Perspectives
  3/22/2021
  

  Medical Racism has Shaped U.S. Policies for Centuries

  by Dierdre Cooper Owens

  Medical racism is as old as America, and the COVID-19 pandemic has been no exception in terms of unequal vulnerability to disease. 

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• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  3/10/2021
  

  How Failed Quarantines Led to 20th-Century Measles Outbreaks

  Misperception of the severity of measles contributed to loosely enforced and poorly observed quarantining around periodic outbreaks of the disease. 

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• 3/14/2021
  

  Remembering the Father of Vaccination

  by Richard Gunderman

  "Whether or not Jenner truly saved more lives than any other person, there is no doubt that his pioneering work on immunization laid the groundwork for today’s most effective tool against COVID-19, the vaccine."

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• 2/28/2021
  

  The "War on Cancer" at 50: The Most Fruitful Failure in Human History

  by Judith L. Pearson

  Announced by Richard Nixon in 1971, the "War on Cancer" has not yielded a cure. But it has driven research that has deepened understanding of cancers and developed life-saving treatments, while erasing ignorance and stigma. It has been one of humanity's most successful failures.